After more than fifty years’ impunity regarding the genocide of the Tibetan people, victims will finally testify about their sufferings on 19th May 2008 at 9:30 in Court nº 2 of Spain’s Audiencia Nacional. Foremost among the voices to be heard is that of Palden Gyatso. A monk from Drepung monastery (where the first protests arose in this latest repression) and author of the book “Fire under the snow”, Palden was arrested in 1959 for organizing demonstrations by a group of monks, and spent 33 years in prison. During his imprisonment he witnessed the deaths of many Tibetan prisoners as a result of torture in prison and forced labour in veritable extermination camps. Hearing he was to travel to Madrid, the Tibetan monk declared: “After more than fifty years’ genocide against my people, in which more than a million Tibetans have died as a result of the military occupation, a court of justice is at last going to listen to our suffering. A few years ago when I was being tortured in prison in Tibet, my dream was that one day a law court would hear about the horrors endured by thousands of my brothers.”
Also to testify is Jampel Monlam, another former monk from Drepung monastery, who was tortured after witnessing what was until now the worst crackdown in Tibet, that of March 1989, which was ordered personally by then Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet, Hu Jintao, currently President of China. Mr. Monlam is now director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in exile in Dharamsala, India, and before leaving for Spain he declared: “I hope our testimony and the investigation of the case of Tibet in the Spanish Courts will help to clarify the events that have taken place against our people. We trust this case will contribute towards the international community’s finally taking a stand for human rights, which come before commercial interests, and that China, host of the Olympic Games, will respect the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people”. The judge has called two other victims to testify: Bhagdro, a former monk from Ganden, who was arrested and tortured with 60 other monks in May 1996 for refusing to cooperate with the patriotic re-education campaign in the Tibetan monasteries that was responsible for vilifying the Dalai Lama among the monks; and lastly, the activist, Tenzin Tsundue, who has not been able to attend the legal proceedings due to the short notice given him by the judge.
Since March 10th a new wave of repression has been unleashed on the Tibetan people, and to date there have been 203 deaths, more than four thousand people arrested and hundreds of cases of torture and abuse. The protests that gave rise to this new crisis reveal the desperation felt by an entire people after more than fifty years’ systematic human rights violations.
These are not just isolated incidents, as, with the world focused on China and the Olympic Games, the Tibetan people have decided to raise their voice and address the international community. Experts from the United Nations, the International Commission of Jurists and human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have asked for an international commission to investigate the events.
Several weeks having gone by since China refused a commission of any sort, and expelled all foreign correspondents, the victims of the genocide in Tibet are once again raising their voices and will testify to an impartial body that knows all about international justice: Court nº 2 of the Audiencia Nacional. Since the acceptance of this lawsuit in which seven former Chinese leaders are accused of genocide, torture, crimes against humanity and terrorism, including former President, Jiang Zemin, and former Prime Minister, Li Peng, little progress has been made. From the very beginning, the judge and the public prosecutor have opposed most of the judicial steps requested by CAT. After the Chinese Government’s protests at the declaration in court of Thubten Wangchen, victim and director of the Fundación Casa del Tíbet in Barcelona, the Court decided, with support from the public prosecutor, that the victims would testify through rogatory commissions. Likewise, due to the repeated refusals of the judge, the accused have not been questioned either. In a surprising reply to a Swiss colleague asking about questioning a Tibetan victim, the Spanish judge declares that “apparently” he had no knowledge that Jiang Zemin had had his immunity lifted, when it is common knowledge that the former President of China gave up that post and is no longer protected by any immunity according to international law with numerous precedents.
All these facts that the investigation into the genocide in Tibet has kept silent are now arousing the interest of the public, after the Indian Government’s refusal to cooperate with the rogatory commission sent by the Spanish judge. The impossibility of victims living in exile in India being able to testify in that country has led to them testifying in Madrid this coming Monday 19th May at 9:30, in the presence of the judge, Ismael Moreno.
CAT: Comité de Apoyo al Tibet
Costa Rica 11 (1, A26)
28016 Madrid Spain
Tel. (0034) 91 350 2414
info@tibetcat.com
www.tibetcat.com
